Dogs and cats are the most popular pets in homes. These pets often require access to the outdoors and pet access doors have been developed to allow these pets to pass through the dwelling door without requiring the dwelling door to be opened for them. Such doors are constructed with a pivoted door supported on a frame that is attached to a dwelling door. Generally, a hole is formed in the dwelling door so that the frame of the pet access door can be mounted to the dwelling door for support of the pivoted pet access door. None of the known pet access doors provide an effective mounting on the screen portion of an exterior screened door. Screens are formed by interwoven, but small and delicate wires that do not provide much support strength for mounting structure thereon.
The pet access door disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,890, granted to Robert Taylor on Jun. 2, 1992, is mountable on the screen portion of an exterior screen door. The Taylor pet access door includes a frame member mounted on opposing sides of the screen through adhesives to provide a seal against the screen. The frame members are interconnected by a single pin at the top and also at the bottom of the frame to align the frames. The door member in Taylor is provided by a flexible screen member that is clamped between the opposing frame members at the top of the assembly. The durability of the flexible flap is questionable as the pivoting is provided by the flexible nature of the screen member clamped between the opposing frames. Furthermore, Taylor provides no security feature to prevent the flexible flap from being opened.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,804 granted on Jul. 16, 1996 to Robert Guest discloses a pet access door that can be mounted on a screen door. The Guest pet access door includes a pair of opposing frame members that are fastened through a plurality of pins extending around the perimeter of the frame members that are received in bores on the opposing frame member for a force fit acceptance of the pins. The enclosed portion of the screen member is captured in a subframe member and cut along three sides so that the enclosed screen member is flexibly movable about the fourth side at the top of the assembly. As with the Taylor disclosure, the durability of such an arrangement is questionable. The Guest pet access door incorporates a magnetic latch device and a movable locking tab that secures the subframe enclosing the screen member against the frame to provide security for the pet access door.
The pet access door disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,701,813 granted to John Smith on Dec. 30, 1997, is mounted on one side of the screen at the corner of the screen door to utilize the frame of the screen door as support for the pet door assembly. The screen member is captured into a spline groove formed in the frame of the pet access door. The door flap is formed of flexible material, such as vinyl or rubber, mounted on the side of the frame to provide a hinged operation without establishing a specific pivot axis. No security feature to limit the opening of the door flap is disclosed.
A substantial pet access door assembly is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,592, issued to George Davlantes on Aug. 19, 1997, for mounting on a solid and substantial outer door of a dwelling structure. The frame members in Davlantes are very large, and even though formed of injection molded plastic would be too heavy to be utilized on a screen door, as the frame members need to be supported from and directly on the screen member. The Davlantes pet access door teaches a security cover that is positionable within an opening in the frame members to secure the opening from unwanted operation of the door flap. Similarly, the pet access door disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,797, granted to Robert Sronce on Jul. 5, 1988, is a heavy assembly that is not adapted for mounting on a screen door.
It would be desirable to provide a pet access door assembly that would be effective in mounting on the screen portion of an outer screen door of a dwelling structure while allowing for a security panel that would prevent operation of the door flap.